- Title
- Developing a brief measure of coparenting competence - the coparenting competence scale
- Creator
- Atherton, Codie
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Masters Coursework - Masters of Clinical Psychology (MClinPsych)
- Description
- Scope: Within the family system, one of the most significant relationships that occurs is the coparenting relationship. This is the one that parents share in the raising of children (Feinberg, 2003). It is important to know how perceived parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and collective efficacy interplay within the family system as these different forms of efficacy are functionally related to satisfaction with family life and the quality of family functioning. Recent research by May, St George, Fletcher, Dempsey, and Newman (2017) has developed the concept of coparenting competence (CC), which is the sense of collective parenting efficacy that parents experience in raising children, that is generated in the coparenting relationship and only exists in association with that partnership. The concept of CC bridges a gap between family systems thinking and efficacy theory wherein research has previously focused on the self-efficacy of one or either parent and not the collective efficacy within the parenting partnership. Purpose: The current study aimed to address a gap in assessment by developing a valid and reliable measure of CC. This would provide a simple, overarching theory based measure of coparenting competence, as an alternative to the present array of multifactorial surveys in a scale that directly links parent perceptions of the quality of their parenting partnership with beliefs about the influence that this will have on child and family outcomes. The scale would have significant clinical benefits by indicating how motivated parents are likely to be in working together to resolve issues that they experience in the raising of children. Methodology: A total of 410 participants attempted the survey, with 108 excluded due to incomplete data. Participants (N=302) who completed the survey included mothers (n=204) and fathers (n=62) living together with their children (aged 0-38, M= 6.29, SD = 4.86). All biological parents had at least one child aged 17 years or younger. Participants completed an online survey (N=112) consisting of non-identifying demographic questions as well as the Coparenting Relationship Scale (Feinberg, Brown, & Kan, 2012), the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC; Johnson and Mash (1989), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) and 36 items exploring CC that were developed by an expert panel. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified 10 items with 5-point Likert responses (0 =not true at all to 4 = very true) that could reliably form a brief Coparenting Competence Scale (CCS; Alpha=.89). Structural Equation Modelling demonstrated that a proposed 2 factor model, in which the CCS has positively and negatively subscales, achieved acceptable fits across indices. Analysis of convergent and divergent validity demonstrated that the CCS measures a unique construct that is linked to Parenting Self-efficacy, measured by PSOC (r=.47) and Coparenting Quality, assessed by the CRS (r=.63). There is a strong association between the CCS and parent perceptions of children’s strengths and difficulties, which is an important outcome factor previously been linked to coparenting. General Conclusions and Implications: The current study makes an important contribution to coparenting research with the development of a reliable and valid measure of CC. The development of the CCS adds to the literature by demonstrating that this newly described construct is distinct from factors previously used to represent coparenting quality in multivariate measures. Associations between CCS and SDQ in the current sample suggest that this new measure may have an important role in future coparenting research. The CCS adds to the field of coparenting research as a standalone measure, focused on efficacy, or as another assessable factor in multivariate evaluation of coparenting quality.
- Subject
- coparenting competence; family; relationships
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1385104
- Identifier
- uon:32166
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Codie Atherton
- Language
- eng
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 90 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |